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“I don’t know about that,” I said. This time, my cheeks were the ones that were flushed. “But I’m glad — we’re both glad that we could help.”
“So…what should we do now?” Heather asked. Unlike her husband, she was still obviously upset by the encounter with the Speroses, her face pale and her voice shaky. “I mean, this is a pretty small town — no offense. I don’t know how we’re supposed to keep avoiding them for however long all this is going to take.”
Chloe turned back toward her mother. “Mom, I already told you that I don’t expect you to stay here the whole time. We don’t even know how long it’s going to take to get a trial date. You know you and Dad can’t stay away from your jobs that long.”
Heather’s mouth set. “We’re not going to abandon you — ”
“It’s not abandoning her,” I cut in, but gently. “Calvin and I will be here for her — and my mother, too. She was already planning to be here for at least the next three months, maybe longer. You don’t have to worry about Chloe not having a support system.”
While my words seemed to cheer Heather a bit, I couldn’t ignore the direct look she gave my rounded belly. “I think you’re going to have your hands full very soon,” she remarked.
“I am,” I said calmly. “But I’ve got Calvin and his whole family as well as my mom. We’ll have attention to spare for Chloe, I promise.”
Something about Jordan’s expression was almost skeptical, as though he couldn’t quite let himself believe that I’d have any energy or time to spare for this newfound sister of mine. To my relief, though, he didn’t try to protest, but only said, “And Heather and I really appreciate that.”
A smile touched my lips as a thought popped into my mind. “I think I know how to avoid the Speroses…at least for the rest of the day.”
It was a good thing I had so much food in the freezer — and that the dining room at Calvin’s and my house could accommodate a big group…at least, once we put the leaf in the table.
Of course, Jordan and Heather had tried to demur, pointing out that they could handle themselves if they bumped into the Speroses at one of Globe’s few dining establishments. The ranks of those restaurants had swelled slightly over the last couple of months, thanks to Sofia Barnes getting her brewpub up and running in record time, but still, the odds of encountering Jack’s family were at least one in four.
It just seemed smarter to have the Fairfields over at the house and avoid running that particular risk.
The weather that day was mild enough that Calvin could take everyone on a hike to use up some time, while I remained at home. As much as I enjoyed hiking around these hills with my husband, I knew I wasn’t up for that kind of activity at the moment…and probably not for at least another couple of months.
Instead, I thought I should take advantage of the unexpected free time to consult the Tarot and see if it could provide me with any insights into the true killer’s identity. I probably should have done so earlier, but the events of the past couple of days had spilled over me like a river in flood, and this was the first time where it felt as if I had the opportunity to truly calm my mind and allow it to be open to any messages the universe might want to send me.
So I went into my office and lit some white sage incense, the kind that always seemed to create the sort of soothing space I needed for this sort of work. Off from their shelf came my set of beloved Everyday Witch cards, and then I started shuffling.
It took a while before I felt the tingle in my fingers that always told me when it was time to stop and pull a card. In situations like this, I generally liked to pull three; it had been a long time since I’d done the much more elaborate Celtic Cross configuration, mostly because that was the sort of card pull I’d done for clients in the past who’d booked me for a full reading, and I’d left the Celtic Cross behind the same way I’d left the life I’d once lived.
Now, though, I only wanted to get some clarity and — if I was lucky — a few hints that might guide me in the direction I needed to go.
The very first card was the Devil, and a worried breath escaped my lips. True, I was performing a reading to track down a murderer, so I doubted I would pull any truly beneficent cards — like the Star or the Nine of Cups — in a situation like this. But….
Well, at least it’s not the Ten of Swords, I told myself with a mental grin. That grim image of a hapless witch lying face-down in the road, her back pierced by ten blades, tended to come up all too often when I was doing these readings.
Then again, this was only the first card in the pull.
Back to what was lying on the altar in front of me. In general, the Devil represented temptation, being swayed from one’s true path by giving in to greed or lust or sometimes just taking the easy way out of a difficult situation. Sometimes it could also signify feeling helpless, of being controlled by outside forces. Whatever interpretation was at work here, it wasn’t anything positive…which didn’t surprise me too much.
The next card was the Seven of Swords reversed, and I let out a hiss of breath from between my teeth. Once again, not something you wanted to see in a personal reading, as it was often connected to deceit or betrayal. I didn’t always pay much attention to reversals, letting the overall feel of a reading guide how I was supposed to interpret a card, but in this case, its lesser meaning of keeping secrets might very well be in play.
Question was, who was keeping secrets from whom?
It was way too early to make a definitive judgment one way or another, so I paused for a moment, holding the remaining cards in my hands, praying to the universe and the Goddess to guide me to something that would provide the most illumination.
My fingertips tingled, so I pulled out the card they were touching and laid it on the altar.
The Emperor, reversed.
I frowned, staring down at the trio of cards that lay on my pretty blue and green springtime altar cloth. In many cases, the Emperor was a positive card, but reversed like this, it could indicate some kind of controlling figure, or even a lack of discipline.
But which meaning of the card was at work here?
Put together, the collection of cards didn’t seem to have an overall direction. Loss of control. Betrayal. Domination.
But who had felt out of control and dominated? Jack Speros?
